In recent years, Egor Sokolov He has been one of Ottawa’s top-performing AHL players, but hasn’t been given many opportunities to play at the highest level. As a result, while he is expected to receive a qualifying offer later this month, Bruce Garrioch reports for Postmedia The expectation is that senators will move to the extreme at some point this summer.
The 24-year-old went undrafted in his first two years of eligibility before a big year with QMJHL Cape Breton in 2019-20 that boosted his stock to the point where he was a second-round pick in 2020, ranking at No. 60 overall. He signed his initial contract shortly after and has played in Ottawa’s system ever since.
Last season, Sokolov played 71 games with AHL Belleville, recording 21 goals and 25 assists. However, it was the first time since his rookie year (which was shortened by the pandemic) that he failed to reach the 50-point mark. As a result, he was not called up at all during the season after clearing waivers during training camp.
Despite that, Sokolov still has 13 NHL appearances under his belt having spent time with the big club in both 2021-22 and 2022-23. Overall, he has a goal and an assist in those games and logs a little over nine minutes a night on average.
Sokolov will be eligible for arbitration for the first time this summer, although with limited NHL action, it’s unlikely he’ll be able to command much more than the minimum salary. But as a 6’4 winger with a reasonable track record of success in the minors, there should be a team or two interested in taking a closer look at him in a move that would likely amount to a trade for AHL players in need of a change. of stage.